The mantises were everywhere, doing their things, which primarily involved making noises. Any child would discolor their pants if they were to be hearing such a noise, let alone be in the presence of such an overwhelming number of praying mantises.
The five humans, however, seemed alright with walking through their midst, without lowering their heads or bending their spines, until they came across the king of the zone.
The three-meter-tall praying mantis, the king of all the local mantises, just happened to be passing by. And all the nearby praying mantises had their antennas lowered in their king’s presence.
“That must be the king…” Rengen hurriedly said as the mantis king’s attention turned to the humans. “Lower your heads.”
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WHIT 183 - BLACK WELL
In the northern end of the mantis zone, dozens of mantis brought five people on top of leaves and dropped them off there on top of a hill next to a river and then left.The five people were none other than Fabby and Co.Tenzai was tossing away lots of dead ants, rats and rabbits from his storage space. These were all given to them by the mantises for winning against their king. Dropping them off at the northern end was an extra service.“Though we’ve wanted to head north-west, they brought us to the northern side,” Fabby said. “That means we don’t have to visit the Black Well.”“Actually if my estimation is correct, then the Black Well is not far from here,” said Rengen. “If you want Black Turmeric, we can get it ther
WHIT 184 - LADY WOLF
“I heard that the Black Well’s guard is a grandmaster,” Rengen said. “There’s just no way for us to steal before his eyes. Not even one gram.”“So the black turmeric grows inside the well, huh…” Fabby looked quite surprised. “Now I understand why that old fellow was sitting on top of it.”“These wolves he spoke of… you think they’re humans?” Rengen asked.“Most likely... They are sect members hunting others.““Why would a grandmaster allow such a thing in his presence?” Rengen wondered.“That’s not what we should be worried about,” Fabby was feeling tense. “Had the mantises not brought us in a different direction, what would have happened to us?”Rengen was startled upon hearing that. He totally forgot that they were supposed to come from the direction they were heading toward now.“We would have been ambushed,” Gossini said, her eyes oozing out coldness.When Tenzai heard that, he came to a decision. “If they’re really ambushing people who’re coming here for safety, then I have all t
WHIT 185 - THE WOLF TRIO
As the lightning spear tore its way through the flying swan and came to him, Edgar stepped to the side and let the spear strike the soil. After all, if he were to catch it, his hand would get burned. There was no need to go through that pain at least for the time being.As the crooked-faced lady was falling along with the swan, two more swans flew into their view, with two riders on them. One of those riders, a tall muscular man in his thirties, caught the lady safely. And then they fearlessly landed in front of Fabby and Co.Now that they were close, Fabby and others could see their faces clearly.One of them was Mazi Seconds, a tall muscular man in his thirties; he was carrying a shield on his back. The second was Dawa Ramen, a crooked-faced lady with a bow and arrow. The third one was Hiba Quinn, an extremely sho
WHIT 186 - THE WHIP
Edgar’s blade was at Dawa’s throat.With the head blown to bits, there was a dead body lying a few feet away from them. Though Dawa didn’t answer him how she did it, he realized that she took out a dead body from her storage space at the last second and used it as a shield.“Surrender, or the cutting continues,” Edgar bluntly said.“I won’t forgive you…” she started to scratch the ground with her right hand like she was going mad. “I won’t forgive you…” Suddenly, metallic spikes protruded out of her skin on her arm and blasted out in his direction.Edgar released drive, but the needle-like spikes penetrated his drive and pierced his body at many places. Luckily, they couldn’t pierce through his bone. Still, twelve spikes were lodged into his body. He grunted in pain, but then released excess drive and pushed the needles out of his body. Thin streams of blood flowed out of the holes. But the arrow in his shoulder was still there. He had to pull it out with his hand.Dawa’s body was c
WHIT 187 - THE SHIELD
Tenzai was fighting Mazi Seconds.Mazi was comfortably blocking all of Tenzai’s punches and kicks, and his shield was still on his back.And Mazi eventually had enough of it, “You have neither speed nor strength. If there is nothing else to show other than simple punches and kicks, allow me to show you my shield.” He took the shield off his back and slammed in Tenzai’s fist.BUDUM~~!!A shockwave released upon impact and Tenzai got blown back. Though he managed to land on his feet, he was left in shock and puzzlement because his ears were bleeding.Mazi smiled. “You have no idea what’s happening, do you? Know this. As long as I have this shield, even inner disciples will find it extremely hard to be able to defeat me.”Tenzai’s head was still mildly spinning. (Just what happened? I hit the shield, and I got sent back? And I’m bleeding, too?) “Where did you get your hands on such a treasure?”“A dying person doesn’t need to know,” he struck the base of the shield in the ground, and it
WHIT 188 - FOUR ON ONE
Before the smoke and dirt settled, Edgar attacked Mazi. He successfully landed his blade on Mazi’s chest, but to his surprise, his blade was repelled, forcing Edgar to move a few steps back.“Sonic Sphere!” a sphere of energy enveloped the neighborhood. Edgar felt like his ears were penetrated by a strange noise, and it uneased him. “Close!” The sphere shrank toward Edgar. He hastily sent some slashes at Mazi, but the sphere didn’t stop, and by the time it shrank, Edgar was bleeding through the ears and nose.A high-frequency sound erupted, and Edgar was lifted off his feet upon receiving the full impact of it. He coughed up more than a mouthful of blood. (Ugh! My ears! What the hell is this noise? I can’t hear anything!)Mazi pointed his finger at Edgar. “Fire—”Gossini snuck into his view and slashed her leg diagonally from bottom right. “Sky Splitter!”A flying slash of curving water erupted and struck him head-on from the ribs up to the top right of his face. The hot concentrated
WHIT 189 - THE OLD GUARD'S WAY
The beasts of the land and of the sky had been fighting at the medium-sized hill, still in an angered state.Meanwhile, Fabby and others had safely made it out unscatched, thanks to the team leader making a safe underground tunnel in time.Neither of them were feeling sad because they had failed the mission the old man at the Black Well had given them. Rather, they were glad that nothing worse happened. After the recent battle was really tense, and they weren’t sure how it’d end.Now, they weren’t all that disappointed, except maybe for Tenzai.They were all heading back to Black Well, with Tenzai carrying Rengen in his arms. Though Rengen shouldn’t be moving around, they had no other choice.Fabby turned around once and put her hands on the soil. Soon, earth rose out of the ground from before her and headed to the hill like a landslide and split the fighting beasts into two groups and forcibly dispersed them.Seeing that the other four were surprised. Tenzai was surprised the most. (
WHIT 190 - THE TRIBULATION
After escaping from the old guard at the black well, Fabby and others headed east, straight to the Great Valley Inn.On their way, Fabby prepared a herbal paste and applied it to Edgar’s wounds, especially the ones given by Dawa’s needles. Though Edgar had temporarily closed off the wounds by burning the wounds, the pain was still there.On one hand, they had to rush in order to get Rengen treated. On the other hand, there was still a lot of distance they had to cover, and even though the beasts they came across so far weren’t that dangerous, it was still a new territory for everyone in the ground, so they were covering distance at a medium pace.They went through the Deer Grove, Buff Swamps, and Bear Bushery without much of a problem.Currently, they were in the Ape Fall, a pretty famous place among the sect members, because the apes would let people pass as long as bananas and other similar sweet food was offered.However, they didn’t come across any apes, and rather, the place was